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This study evaluates the level of access to justice and the quality of the justice rendered in Rwandese land dispute resolution and marks pathways to improvements in the benefits that those seeking justice may derive from the system. The analytical concept of proximity of justice provides the organising principle for our study and the present report. This notion distinguishes four different dimensions in which the level of access to and quality of justice can be measured: (1) timeliness (of decisions and the delays within which they can be enforced), distance (the geographical distance that has to be covered in seeking justice), (3) understanding (the extent to which those seeking justice understand the procedures followed and the decisions rendered), and (4) trust (the extent to which procedures and decisions correspond to their notions of justice and fairness, and are thus seen as legitimate). The focus in this report is on the quality of land dispute resolution in rural areas (as opposed to the cities), and specifically on the interventions of lower level administrative units, abunzi committees (somewhat akin to justices of the peace) and lower courts (tribunaux de base). This is because these institutions deal with and bring to an end the vast majority of land disputes that arise in the rural context.
